1. Field
The present invention relates to an automatic matching method and system which can initially automatically match a category and an original query, and then perform a search within a designated category when matching a subsequent query, and thereby enable a more accurate query matching.
Also, the present invention relates to an automatic matching method and system which can exclude a stopword, which is repeatedly utilized without any direct relation to a registration requested product, and can match an optimal category for the product based on a query from which the stopword is excluded.
2. Discussion of the Related Technology
Generally, a shopping mall relay service indicates a service of informing a product purchaser about shopping malls that enter a predetermined relay website through a contract with a service provider. Specifically, the shopping mall relay service categorizes and introduces products, being sold in the shopping malls, and then provides the product purchaser with various types of information, such as a price comparison for each shopping mall with respect to the identical product, and the like.
As described above, the shopping mall relay service introduces products of the shopping malls to the product purchaser using various types of methods. When the product purchaser selects a particular product which is being sold at a particular shopping mall, the shopping mall relay service connects the product purchaser and the selected shopping mall, so that the affiliated shopping mall may substantially sell the product.
Product information registered in each of the shopping malls should be registered in a shopping mall relay server for the shopping mall relay service. Usually, product registration procedures should be performed, the procedures including: 1) registering product information, which a product registrant desires to sell, in a shopping mall server, 2) transmitting the registered product information from the shopping mall server to the shopping mall relay server, 3) a department section in charge of the shopping mall relay server, matching and arranging a product model name of the transmitted product information through a manual operation, and 4) registering the arranged product information in the shopping mall relay server.
Accordingly, the product registration procedure needs a great amount of time for the product registration and matching operation. Also, there is some constraint on operation resources. As an example, a ratio of unprocessed product information may exceed the ratio of registered product information.
Also, with an expansion of a marketplace, products also increase. In this situation, if the product registration procedure is utilized, the limitation of operation resources may be worsened.
Also, a database search system generally outputs only search results which accurately include an original query inputted from a user or another system. Specifically, the database search system cannot utilize a plurality of processes of various search logics on the original query and output a predetermined number of search results that may match the original query.
However, since a shopping mall relay server generally includes the above-described general database search system, 1) it may be difficult to retrieve a matching product model when a product registrant registers an incorrect product name in an affiliated shopping mall server, or a model name field of the product is blank, 2) since a search is not performed using a keyword registered in a product model, it may be difficult to retrieve a matching product model when the product name is registered as a particular keyword, 3) since a search is not performed using a search engine, it is not easy to perform the search using a Hangul product name, and 4) it may be difficult to retrieve a product model when a mistyped or omitted character is included in the product name registered in the affiliated shopping mall server by the product registrant.
Also, the shopping mall relay server searches all categories for a desired product model, and thus consumes a great amount of time and system resources. However, although a great amount of system resources are consumed, comparatively incorrect search results may be outputted and thus reliability may be deteriorated.